I’m starting to wonder just how many parts there are going to be in the “fuselage riveting” series. Of course, when I’m doing mostly short work sessions, it’s somewhat unavoidable…
Anyway, tonight I worked on riveting the aft side skins to the two aft most bulkheads. Space is pretty tight in this area, so it was kind of slow going – but I managed to not mangle any rivets, which was nice. I also discovered that there were some more rivets between the aft side skins and the upper longerons that could be squeezed – these are at the aft end, further back than where there will be rivets in common with the turtleneck skin.
I still have some rivets on these bulkheads left to do, though. On the forward side of one bulkhead are riveted the two large bars that the horizontal stab will attach to. These bars are very much in the way of bucking the skin rivets. I was able to shoot the bottom three rivets on each side – the bars are angled away from the skin here, so access is OK – but I stopped there. None of my bucking bars will fit in the tight space from here on up, so I’m going to have to get creative. I’ve heard of guys using axe heads, chisels, and so forth as ad hoc bucking bars – really, anything that has heft and a smooth surface can do in a pinch – so I’ll see what I can come up with. Then maybe I can finally turn this thing over and start working on the bottom rivets…
Here are a couple photos of the tight space created by the stab attach bars. At the top, there’s maybe 1/4” between the bar and the bulkhead flange:
